A large black snake grows out of a pile of sugar and soda
Complexity:
Danger:
Do this experiment at home
Reagents
Safety
Wear safety glasses before starting the experiment.
Conduct the experiment on a tray.
When conducting the experiment, keep a container of water nearby.
Place the burner on a cork stand. Do not touch the burner immediately after completing the experiment - wait until it cools down.
General safety rules
- Do not allow chemicals to come into contact with your eyes or mouth.
- Keep people away from the experiment site without protective glasses, as well as small children and animals.
- Keep the experimental kit out of the reach of children under 12 years of age.
- Wash or clean all equipment and fixtures after use.
- Ensure that all reagent containers are tightly closed and stored properly after use.
- Make sure all disposable containers are disposed of correctly.
- Use only the equipment and reagents provided in the kit or recommended by current instructions.
- If you have used a food container or glassware for experiments, throw it away immediately. They are no longer suitable for storing food.
First aid information
- If reagents come into contact with your eyes, rinse thoroughly with water, keeping the eye open if necessary. Contact your doctor immediately.
- If swallowed, rinse mouth with water and drink a little clean water. Do not induce vomiting. Contact your doctor immediately.
- If reagents are inhaled, remove the victim to fresh air.
- In case of skin contact or burns, flush the affected area with plenty of water for 10 minutes or longer.
- If in doubt, consult a doctor immediately. Take the chemical reagent and its container with you.
- In case of injury, always seek medical attention.
- Improper use of chemicals can cause injury and damage to health. Carry out only the experiments specified in the instructions.
- This set of experiences is intended for children 12 years and older only.
- Children's abilities vary significantly even within age groups. Therefore, parents conducting experiments with their children should use their own discretion to decide which experiments are appropriate and safe for their children.
- Parents should discuss safety rules with their child or children before experimenting. Particular attention should be paid to the safe handling of acids, alkalis and flammable liquids.
- Before starting experiments, clear the experiment site of objects that may interfere with you. Storage should be avoided food products near the testing site. The testing area should be well ventilated and close to a tap or other water source. To conduct experiments you will need a stable table.
- Substances in disposable packaging must be used completely or disposed of after one experiment, i.e. after opening the package.
FAQ
Dry fuel (urotropine) does not spill out of the jar. What to do?
Hexamine may clump during storage. To still pour it out of the jar, take a black stick from the set and carefully break up the lumps.
It is not possible to form methenamine. What to do?
If methenamine is not pressed in the mold, pour it into a plastic cup and add 4 drops of water. Mix the moistened powder well and put it back into the mold.
You can also add 3 drops of soap solution from the Tin set that you received with the Monster Chemistry set.
Can this snake be eaten or touched?
When working with chemicals, you need to follow an unshakable rule: never taste anything that you get as a result of chemical reactions. Even if in theory it is a safe product. Life is often richer and more unpredictable than any theory. The product you get may not be the one you expected, chemical glassware may contain traces of previous reactions, and chemical reagents may not be pure enough. Experiments with tasting reagents can end sadly.
This is why eating anything is prohibited in professional laboratories. Even the food you brought with you. Safety first!
Is it possible to touch the “snake”? Be careful, it may be hot! The coal that makes up the snake can smolder. Make sure the snake is cool enough to handle. The snake gets dirty - don’t forget to wash your hands after the experiment!
Other experiments
Step-by-step instruction
Take a dry fuel burner from the starter kit and place foil on it. Attention! Use a cork stand to avoid damaging your work surface.
Place the plastic ring in the center of the foil.
Pour all the dry fuel (2.5 g) into the ring.
Press the mold into the ring to create a hole in the pile of dry fuel. Carefully remove the mold.
Remove the plastic ring by tapping it lightly.
Pour two level scoops of sugar (2 g) into a jar with 0.5 g of soda (NaHCO3) and close it with a lid.
Shake the jar for 10 seconds to mix the sugar and soda.
Pour the baking soda and sugar mixture into the hole in the dry fuel.
Set fire to dry fuel - very soon a black “snake” will begin to grow from this hill!
Expected Result
Dry fuel will begin to burn. A mixture of sugar and soda in the fire will begin to turn into a large black “snake”. If you do everything correctly, you will grow a snake 15-35 cm long.
Disposal
Recycle solid waste experiment together with household waste.
What happened
Why is such a “snake” formed?
When heated, part of the sugar (C 12 H 22 O 11) burns, turning into water vapor and carbon dioxide. Combustion requires an influx of oxygen. Since the flow of oxygen into the internal areas of the sugar slide is difficult, another process occurs there: from high temperature Sugar decomposes into carbon and water vapor. This is how our “snake” turns out.
Why is soda (NaHCO 3) added to sugar?
When heated, soda decomposes, releasing carbon dioxide(CO2):
Soda is added to the dough to make it fluffy when baking. And that is why we add soda to sugar in this experiment - so that the released carbon dioxide and water vapor make the “snake” airy and light. Therefore the snake can grow upward.
What does this “snake” consist of?
Basically, the “snake” consists of coal, which was obtained by heating sugar and did not burn in the fire. It is coal that gives the “snake” its black color. It also contains Na 2 CO 3, resulting from the decomposition of soda when heated.
What chemical reactions occur during the formation of a “snake”?
- Combustion (combination with oxygen) of sugar:
C 12 H 22 O 11 + O 2 = CO 2 + H 2 O
- Thermal decomposition of sugar into carbon and water vapor:
C 12 H 22 O 11 → C + H 2 O
- Thermal decomposition of baking soda into water vapor and carbon dioxide:
2NaHCO 3 → Na 2 CO 3 + H 2 O + CO 2
What is sugar and where does it come from?
A sugar molecule is made up of carbon (C), oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H) atoms. This is what she looks like:
To be honest, it's hard to see anything here. Download the MEL Chemistry app on your smartphone or tablet and you can look at the sugar molecule from different angles and better understand its structure. In the application, the sugar molecule is called Sucrose.
As you can see, this molecule consists of two parts, connected by an oxygen atom (O). You've probably heard the names of these two parts: glucose and fructose. They are also called simple sugars. Regular sugar is called compound sugar to emphasize that the sugar molecule consists of several (two) simple sugars.
This is what these simple sugars look like:
fructose
Sugars are important building blocks of plants. During photosynthesis, plants produce simple sugars from water and carbon dioxide. The latter, in turn, can be combined into both short molecules (for example, sugar) and long chains. Starch and cellulose are long chains (polysugars) made up of simple sugars. Plants use them as building material and for supplying nutrients.
The longer the sugar molecule, the more difficult it is for our digestive system digest it. That's why we love sweets containing simple short sugars so much. But our bodies were not designed to rely primarily on simple sugars; they are rare in nature. Therefore, be careful with your consumption of sweets!
Why does soda (NaHCO 3) decompose when heated, but table salt (NaCl) does not?
This is not an easy question. First you need to understand what binding energy is.
Imagine a train carriage with a very uneven floor. This carriage has its own mountains, its own hollows, and depressions. A sort of small Switzerland in a carriage. A wooden ball rolls on the floor. If you let him go, he will roll down the slope until he reaches the bottom of one of the depressions. We say that the ball “wants” to take a position with a minimum potential energy, which is located just at the bottom of the depression. Similarly, atoms try to line up in a configuration in which the bond energy is minimal.
There are several subtle points here that I would like to draw your attention to. Firstly, remember that this explanation, which is said “on the fingers”, is not very accurate, but it will suit us for understanding the overall picture.
So where will the ball roll? To the lowest point of the carriage? No matter how it is! He will roll into the nearest depression. And, most likely, it will remain there. Maybe there is another depression on the other side of the mountain, deeper. Unfortunately, our ball “doesn’t know” this. But if the car shakes strongly, then with a high probability the ball will jump out of its local depression and “find” a deeper hole. There we shake a bucket of gravel to compact it. The gravel knocked out of the local minimum will most likely find a more optimal configuration, and our ball will sooner reach a deeper depression.
As you may have already guessed, in the microworld the analogue of shaking is temperature. When we heat a substance, we make the entire system “shake,” just as we rocked a carriage with a ball. Atoms are detached and reattached in the most different ways, and with a high probability they will be able to find a more optimal configuration than it was at the beginning. If it exists, of course.
We see this process in a very large number of chemical reactions. The molecule is stable because it is located in a local depression. If we move it a little, it will get worse, and it will come back, similar to a ball, which, if you move it a little from the local depression to the side, will roll back. But it is necessary to heat this substance more strongly so that our “car” is shaken properly, and the molecule finds a more successful configuration. That's why dynamite won't explode until you hit it. This is why the paper won't catch fire until you heat it up. They are happy in their local holes and need a noticeable effort to force them to leave, even if there is a deeper hole nearby.
Now we can return to our original question: why does baking soda (NaHCO 3) decompose when heated? Because it is in a state of local minimum binding energies. In a kind of depression. There is a deeper depression nearby. This is what we are talking about about the state when 2NaHCO 3 decomposed into 2Na 2 CO 3 + H 2 O + CO 2. But the molecule does not “know” about this and until we heat it up, it will not be able to get out of its local hole in order to look around and find a deeper hole. But when we heat the soda to 100-200 degrees, this process will go quickly. Soda decomposes.
Why doesn't table salt NaCl break down in a similar way? Because she is already in the deepest hole. If it is broken into Na and Cl or any other combination of them, the bond energy will only increase.
If you've read this far, well done! This is not the simplest text and not the simplest thoughts. I hope you were able to learn something. I want to warn you at this point! As I said at the beginning, this is a beautiful explanation, but not entirely correct. There are situations when the ball in the carriage will tend to occupy a hole that is not the deepest. Likewise, our substance will not always tend to a state with minimal bond energy. But more about this some other time.
How to attract children to chemistry? - Show an interesting, spectacular, stunning experiment! “But such an experiment requires equipment, materials, knowledge,” you say. And... you will be wrong! For a minimal but equally spectacular pharaoh snake, all you have to do is go to a drug store and then a Hunter/Angler or hardware store. And take some precautions, the same as, for example, when launching fireworks, that is, be careful with fire.
This is exactly the kind of experiment - the classic “Pharaoh’s Snake”, which appears as if out of nowhere, sways, sometimes hisses, sometimes sparkles and always makes an impression. Pharaoh's snakes include a large number of chemical colorful demonstrations with various reagents and equipment. I will try to tell you about the simplest chemicals in terms of availability and safety for humans, but not always the simplest in terms of preparation, so don’t be too lazy. Although the first "snake" will be for the lazy too :)
A small historical digression
I've come across a dozen explanations of where the name "Pharaoh's Snake" came from. The three most frequently mentioned are:
- After the victory of the army of the pharaoh of the Southern Kingdom of Narmer over the army of the Northern Kingdom, it was as if a handful of priests from the North did not want to recognize Narmer as the winner, demanding divine evidence. And then the pharaoh’s scepter turned into a huge smoky snake and swallowed them up.
- The magician, priest and prophet Zarathushtra had two eldest sons: Urvatat-nara and Hvara-chitra. They argued among themselves who should be a warrior and who should be a farmer. Then Zarathushtra turned his staff into a fiery and smoky snake, turning its head towards Hvara-chitra, and its tail towards Urvatat-nara. The wise and cunning Zarathushtra said that the tail indicates a farmer, and the head indicates a warrior. True, there is not a word about pharaohs in the explanation :)
- From the Bible: “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: If Pharaoh says to you: perform a miracle, then you say to Aaron: take your rod and throw it before Pharaoh - he will become a serpent. Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and did as The Lord commanded. And Aaron cast his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and he became a serpent. And Pharaoh called the wise men and the magicians; Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken." "Exodus" Chapter 7. Verses 8 - 13.
Perhaps there is some truth in each explanation. I suspect that the priests and “magicians” of antiquity could well have been able to create such snakes, fooling the flock and spectators and convincing them of their power :). Be that as it may, we are not going to fool anyone; we will tell about each “snake”, why and how it turns out.
Well, now let's move on to our snakes
The simplest pharaoh snake or gluconate python
It is truly the easiest to implement. And you will need a maximum of 60 rubles worth of materials. Buy a pack of dry fuel tablets from a hardware store or a store that sells hunting and fishing equipment. Buy calcium gluconate tablets at the pharmacy, the cheapest, uncoated. You will also need matches (a lighter is also suitable, but it is more convenient to light a tablet of dry fuel with matches).
Attention! Conduct the display only in a fire-safe place! Make sure that children do not come close to a burning dry fuel tablet!
It is better to conduct the experiment in calm weather or in a windproof place. Place a tablet of dry fuel on a non-flammable surface and place a tablet of calcium gluconate on top. Light the dry fuel (in the video the tablet is set on fire from only one side, as a result the “snake” tilts to one side; if you want a straighter “snake”, try to set the tablet on fire from different sides at the same time), observe. A tablet of dry fuel burns from 8 to 13 minutes; as a rule, the “snake” will grow throughout this time. The maximum length of a snake that I have ever recorded is a little more than 30 centimeters.
What happens to calcium gluconate during heating? The reaction is simple:
Ca 2 + O 2 → CO 2 + Ca(OH) 2 + H 2 O + C
I deliberately did not equalize the coefficients:
- it is not calcium hydroxide that is formed, but an oxide, but, as a rule, calcium oxide has time to react with the water released in the reaction
More dangerous snake or sulfa viper
Haven't you burned all the dry fuel tablets yet? Then go to the pharmacy again and buy the cheapest of the sulfonamides in the form of tablets of 0.5 grams (maybe there are more? Then you can take more) without a coating. For example, streptocide, sulfadimethoxine, sulgin, etazol, phthalazole, sulfadimezin, norsulfazole, etc. Don't take Biseptol - it's expensive. Or look in your medicine cabinet, you might even find an expired one - even better: it won’t bother your conscience.
Attention! Conduct the display only in a fire-safe place! The experiment produces toxic gases! It is best to conduct the experiment under draft or outdoors with a light wind blowing away from you. Make sure that children do not come close to a burning dry fuel tablet!
So, place a tablet of dry fuel on a non-flammable surface, and place a tablet of sulfanilamide on top. Light it, move to the direction from which the wind is blowing, or close the draft glass and turn on the weak outflow. Depending on which sulfonamide you bought, the snake will have a different thickness. By the way, this snake can be controlled (do it only under traction!) - you can pick up its tip with tweezers and drag it slightly - it will lose weight and stretch out. During the combustion of sulfonamide, toxic gases are released (sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, possible small amounts of sulfuric anhydride and nitrogen oxides) and non-toxic (carbon dioxide, nitrogen), which swell the mass of forming carbon. Such a snake, in addition to a colorful demonstration, also has more down-to-earth qualities: instead of fumigating the room with sulfur, you can use a couple of snakes like this. Rats do not enter a room that has been “fumigated” with a sulfa viper for a very long time; they leave the holes in which this snake was set on fire. However, remember that after fumigating a room, it is better not to stay in it for a while, as you risk getting poisoned!
The snake has metallic shade and looks a lot like giant steel wool. Once burned it is safe.
Well, let’s write the combustion reaction of sulfanilamide using sulfadimethoxine as an example:
C 12 H 14 N 4 O 4 S+ O 2 → CO 2 + N + SO 2 + H 2 O + C + H 2 S
I didn't equalize the odds again:
- in some cases, hydrogen sulfide is partially or completely oxidized to sulfur dioxide and water
- nitrogen oxides and sulfuric anhydride (SO 3) may be released
- how much carbon is burned to form carbon dioxide depends on the conditions
sand snake
You will need washed (clean) dried sand, preferably coarse, pure alcohol, soda and sugar. This experiment is relatively safe (on a small scale) so that it can be carried out, for example, in the kitchen, but it is still necessary to remember safety precautions when working with alcohol and fire.
Create a slide of sand on a plate with a depression at the top (in fact, the larger the slide and the wider the diameter of the depression, the thicker and longer the snake will be. But do not overdo it - firstly, it is more dangerous, and secondly, it can fall into pieces), soak it in alcohol. Pour a pre-prepared mixture of baking soda and sugar into the cavity (the ratio of soda and sugar is 1:4). You can be guided by an approximate ratio: for a glass of sand you need to take half a teaspoon of soda and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Set the "slide" on fire. The alcohol will ignite and the “slide” will begin to flame. Gradually, the mixture at the top will begin to turn black and soon a black snake-like mass will climb out of the “crater” - our snake.
Now about what happens in the experiment: sodium bicarbonate turns into carbonate with the release of carbon dioxide and water vapor:
2NaHCO 3 = Na 2 CO 3 + H 2 O + CO 2
alcohol burns in air, again producing carbon dioxide and water:
C 2 H 5 OH + 3O 2 = 2CO 2 + 3H 2 O
sugar burns with a lack of oxygen, forming carbon dioxide, water and carbon (the reaction is not equalized due to the fact that the amount of oxygen is unknown):
C 12 H 22 O 11 + O 2 → CO 2 + H 2 O + C
Actually, coal together with sodium carbonate, foamed with gases, creates the effect of a snake.
I am not going to finish the material here. There are other options for creating a pharaoh snake, which I will talk about later.
Experiment in a box No. 01: Pharaoh's snake.
Set from section: chemistry for children from 12 years old.
Experiment time: 15 minutes.
Difficulty level: 1 of 3
Set contents: dry fuel, calcium gluconate, ceramic tiles, instructions (+ video).
The set is positioned for children over 12 years old. But we did not indicate an age range, since we often receive feedback from parents and even grandparents that they themselves liked it no less than the children and that they want to repeat this experience again and again!
The composition contains everything you need: a ceramic non-flammable stand, dry fuel and calcium gluconate. To “wake up” a sleeping snake or an octopus with tentacles (as you like), just put all the ingredients on top of each other, according to the instructions, and set it on fire.
Calcium gluconate is a complex organic compound. It decomposes under the influence of temperature. The body of the “snake” is composed of calcium oxide and carbon. Since the reaction begins from the sides of the tablets, a curved muzzle appears first, then, when the flame engulfs the entire tablet, the body of the “snake” comes out.
Photos from our customers
Video with the experiment "Pharaoh's snake"
Reviews
Anonymous 1020279 11/22/2016 02:49
We made a “Pharaoh’s snake”, the child was delighted! I liked that everything was included, including ceramic tiles. All you need is matches :) The experience is very spectacular. I highly recommend it!
Thank you, Simple Science!
Maxim Trofimenko 14.11.2016 18:21
Of course, we received a lot of bright emotions from the experiment. And naturally, we will summon the Pharaoh’s snake more than once. In general, the experiments are aimed at a children's audience, but something emerging from the fire is ready to fascinate anyone, regardless of age.
I wrote in detail about the experience with photos and videos on my blog (look for me in search engines as mazzoboardgamer)
Tatiana Prokofieva 10.11.2016 12:01
It was a magnificent sight. From a small tablet the body of the serpent-Gorynych grew in fire. The children were delighted. I would like to repeat this experiment more than once, using 2-3 sets at once, so that the snake is even more powerful. Highly recommend. I liked how the set was assembled - even the stand was made of stone for convenience and safety. The experiment can be done completely calmly at home - there are no strong odors, sparks do not fly away. A regular baking sheet or metal tray is good for conducting the experiment. After completing the experiment, what remains is just a pile of ash, which, without any residue or traces, can be easily shaken into the trash can.
Trywalking 09.11.2016 14:46
Spectacular, unusual, beautiful. As a mother, I was a little bothered by the presence chemical substances and fire, but it turned out that a small iron tray was enough - it solved all the problems. The snakes themselves came out in the form of ash, so they were easy to remove after the end of the experiment.
Hi all! Friends, today I want to conduct a cool experiment, I will try to grow a huge scary monster out of sand, which is very similar to a giant black worm. This experiment is also called Pharaoh's Sand Snake. To do this, I collected some sand in the children's sandbox, I think the kids won't be offended by me. I poured it into a cup and dried it on the radiator. I will also need sugar, baking soda and lighter fluid.
I'll soak the sand in lighter fluid.
I’ll take 40 grams of sugar and 10 grams of soda, mix and pour into a cup of sand.
All that remains is to set it on fire, I hope I won’t need this thing. By the way, all monsters are very afraid of water and fire extinguishers. I'll leave it just in case.
I set it on fire. See what happens, sugar turns into a scary black worm. I’m already getting scared, at first I wanted to conduct this experiment in complete darkness, but now I won’t turn off the light.
The body of a huge scary monster emerged from the fire, something that reminds me of a horror movie. But if you look at it from a distance, it’s a very cute little worm.
The length of this monster is approximately 50 centimeters and it all grew from a small pile of sugar and soda.
Let's see what's inside this huge worm. It cuts very easily, like polyurethane foam, there is emptiness inside.
I won't taste it. Although it is made from sugar, you cannot eat it, because burnt sugar is very bitter.
I hope you enjoyed the Pharaoh's Serpent experiment. If you want to grow a sand snake, do it outside and be sure to follow safety rules!
Good luck to you dear friends!
The photo shows the so-called “Pharaoh's snake”, the result of the decomposition reaction (Hg(NCS) 2). In general, pharaoh snakes are a number of chemical transformations that are accompanied by the formation of a large volume of porous reaction product from a small volume of starting substances. They are often used as a demonstration experiment to clearly illustrate that a chemical reaction can result in multiple changes in the volume of reactants. Such chemical processes are accompanied by a rapid release of gas and look as if a large snake is crawling out of a mixture of reagents or the tentacles of an unprecedented alien are appearing.
The name of the experiment refers us to the text of the Old Testament. In the seventh book of Exodus it is written: “And Aaron [Moses’s elder brother and his companion in the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian slavery] threw down his rod before Pharaoh, and it [the rod] became a serpent. And Pharaoh called for wise men and sorcerers; and these magicians of Egypt did the same with their spells: each of them threw down his rod, and they became snakes, but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”
For some time, Wöhler's discovery - a fireworks called "Pharaoh's snake" ("Pharaoschlange") - was popular in Germany at science shows, but then it was banned from being shown anywhere except the walls of chemical laboratories. The ban on pharaoh snakes was introduced when, under tragic circumstances, the toxic properties of Hg(NCS) 2 were discovered - several children received fatal poisoning after mistaking mercury(II) thiocyanate for candy and eating it.
Mercury(II) thiocyanate is a white solid, practically insoluble in water (0.069 grams of Hg(NCS) 2 dissolves in 100 milliliters of water at 20°C). It is obtained in almost the same way as Wöhler obtained it - using the reaction between solutions of mercury(II) nitrate or chloride with potassium thiocyanate. When mercury(II) thiocyanate is heated to 165°C, its spontaneous decomposition begins with the release of heat, and the white powder turns into a voluminous and porous brown mass that is insoluble in water. The snake is mainly composed of carbon nitride (C 3 N 4). The main decomposition reaction of mercury(II) thiocyanate is described by the following equation:
2Hg(NSC) 2 → 2HgS + CS 2 + C 3 N 4
When heated, C3N4 partially decomposes to form cyanogen and molecular nitrogen:
3C 3 N 4 → 3(CN) 2 + N 2
Mercury(II) sulfide formed as a result of the decomposition of mercury(II) thiocyanate can further react with atmospheric oxygen, resulting in the formation of metallic mercury, the vapors of which are volatile. Therefore, for safety reasons, when conducting a demonstration experiment, the decomposing mercury(II) thiocyanate is usually covered with a glass cover.
HgS + O 2 → Hg + SO 2
Carbon disulfide (CS 2), formed during the decomposition of mercury thiocyanate, is highly flammable and can also burn in atmospheric oxygen to form carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide (SO 2) gases:
CS 2 + 3O 2 → CO 2 + 2SO 2
Like all mercury salts, thiocyanate is toxic. Its semi-lethal dose (LD 50) is 46 mg/kg (for rats when administered orally), this substance enters the body especially quickly through the mucous membranes and is absorbed through the skin. For this reason, and also because possible allocation mercury vapor, preparation for the experiment and its conduct require not only caution and attention, but also compliance with safety precautions - a snake from Hg(NCS) 2 can only be shown in a special laboratory room with good exhaust ventilation. This experiment is very spectacular: from 0.5 grams of Hg(NCS) 2 you can get a snake up to 30 cm long.
If you want to see the pharaoh’s snake in your kitchen or show it at a matinee in the school assembly hall or kindergarten, then the safest option is gluconate pharaoh snake. To obtain such a snake, it is enough to heat a tablet of calcium gluconate, which can be bought at any pharmacy, to 120 ° C (during experiments, calcium gluconate is most often placed on a tablet of dry fuel, which is set on fire). The calcium gluconate will begin to degrade and a light gray snake with white spots will crawl out of the tablet. From one tablet weighing 0.5 grams you can get a snake up to 10–15 cm long.
The decomposition of calcium gluconate leads to the formation of calcium oxide, carbon, carbon dioxide and water:
Ca 2 + O 2 → 10C + 2CO 2 + CaO + 10H 2 O
The light shade of the calcium gluconate pharaoh snake is given by calcium oxide. The disadvantage of the resulting snake is its fragility: it easily crumbles.
Arkady Kuramshin